Lingering Ghosts from Obama’s Former Church: The Reverends Wright, Pfleger, and Thistlethwaite

In the aftermath of Barack Obama’s win in Tuesday’s election, ghosts of his 20-year membership at Trinity United Church of Christ have flitted across the screen. The Rev. Wright made an appearance the other day at a forum in Connecticut where he accused the media of having used him to try to sabotage Obama’s candidacy. Wright contended that statements from his inflammatory sermons were taken out of context. To refresh my memory I revisited a videotape of Wright’s sermon in which he heaped scorn on “white” Hillary Clinton, much to the glee of his congregants.

Although I’ve seen no mention of Rev. Michael Pfleger lately, Wright reminded me of Pfleger's follow-up sermon as guest preacher from the Trinity pulpit; the well-known Catholic priest also brought the house down with even more biting mockery and scorn directed at Clinton, Obama’s primary opponent in the primary.

I then turned to today’s Washington Post where I spotted an excerpt from an essay by the Rev. Susan Thistlethwaite, a long-time member of Trinity UCC who blogs for On Faith, sponsored by the Post and Newsweek. The excerpt is headlined, “Obama's Election a Step Toward Getting Back the Nation's Soul.”

Thistlethwaite writes:

“In the past years, we have sold our national soul to the devil. We sold our soul in waging preemptive war based on lies, in adopting torture as policy, and we sold our souls for greed based on creating debt and selling it. We sold our souls long ago when we made buying and selling persons of African descent legal; we still have far to go on delivering on the full promise of equality for all Americans. Gay Americans did not fare well Tuesday in ballot initiatives designed to deny them their civil rights. This is clear evidence we still have a long way to go.”

Guess what, Rev. Thistlethwaite; women did not fare so well last Tuesday either. Note that Thistlethwaite conveniently fails to mention the sexism and misogyny suffered by Sen. Hillary Clinton, the first viable female candidate for the presidency in the history of the United States. That could be because Thistlethwaite enthusiastically joined her pastor Rev. Wright and guest preacher Rev. Pfleger in their efforts to destroy Sen. Clinton.

As a seminary graduate who has served as an ordained minister, I was shocked when I read Thistlethwaite’s June 1st post at On Faith in which she used the biblical story of Esther to demonize Sen. Clinton. Keep in mind that at the time Thistlethwaite wrote this piece, she was president of Chicago Theological Seminary, affiliated with the United Church of Christ, where she continues to serve as a professor of theology.

In my opinion, Thistlethwaite clearly abused her office as seminary president with her defamatory attack on Clinton, which I’ve pasted below in its entirety.

Hillary's Biblical Role Model

At CNN”s Compassion Forum (http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/04/07/cnn-to-air-exclusively-the-compassion-forum/) in April, both Democratic candidates for President were asked about their faith. At one point, Hillary Clinton was asked about her favorite Bible story. She said, "Ever since I was a little girl, [I have been] a great admirer of Esther ... There weren't too many models of women who had the opportunity to make a decision, to take a chance, a risk that was very courageous."

There are those who believe that this week Hillary Clinton will gracefully bow out of the Democratic race for President after the last primary, presuming Barack Obama will have locked up the majority of delegates. But I am not so sure. I have read the biblical story of Queen Esther many times and I don’t see Queen Esther as someone who would gracefully concede defeat.

Now, it is fair to say that there are not a lot of Bible stories where women get to be brave, but nevertheless, Esther is very revealing as a role model for Senator Clinton, especially since she claims to have admired Esther since she was a little girl. This high regard for Esther reveals a good deal about this candidate.

Esther becomes the Queen of King Ahasuerus after he puts away his first wife for disobedience; Esther is Jewish, a fact of which the King is apparently unaware. One of the King’s henchmen plans to exterminate the Jews, and Mordecai, who had raised Esther, prevails upon her to try to save her people. Mordecai wonders if this is not even the hand of God, that Esther should be Queen at this particular historical moment. In a verse that may be on Senator Clinton's mind today, Mordecai says, "Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this." (Esther 4: 14)
Esther is brave, but she is also very shrewd. Through trickery and currying favor with the King, Esther saves the Jewish people. The story shows her to be quite bloodthirsty as well. Esther makes sure that not only is the King’s henchman hanged, but his ten sons as well!

Esther is apparently also popular with another woman in politics. In the new HBO movie Recount, Laura Dern gives a stunning performance as Katherine Harris, the Florida Secretary of State who certified that the Republican candidate, George W. Bush, had defeated the Democrat, Al Gore, in the popular vote of Florida. The Florida Supreme Court overturned her ruling on appeal, though this decision was then reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court. In the movie, the Katherine Harris character talks about her biblical role model. Again, Queen Esther.

Yes, perhaps it’s the bravery of Esther, but deception and ruthlessness are also much a part of Esther’s biblical resume.

So, this week, we may see why Queen Esther is Senator Hillary Clinton's role model and how she interprets this text. In Hillary's own Esther summary, she has “to make a decision, to take a chance, [to take] a risk that…[is] very courageous." It would be very courageous to decide to respect the rules and concede the race when Senator Obama secures the majority of delegates.

But don’t forget Esther’s cunning and ruthlessness as well. That's the question that hangs over this week like the hanging chads in Florida. What does Queen Esther mean to Hillary Clinton? Is it the same view of courage as Katherine Harris, or something different?

As I noted in my own post at Katalusis last June titled, Pundits Continue to Exorcise Their Misogynist Demons by Bashing Hillary:

“A competent powerful woman ran for president and garnered a majority of the popular vote – how threatening that must be to the likes of E. J. Dionne, Eugene Robinson, Bob Herbert, David Brooks, Mark Shields, Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, Keith Olbermann, et al, not to mention their codependent female allies, including Maureen Dowd, Arianna Huffington, and Susan Thistlethwaite.”